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Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Wednesday temporarily suspended protests in Islamabad demanding the leader’s release.
At least six people, including four paramilitary troops and two protesters, have been killed in the demonstrations.
What do we know about the police raid in Islamabad?
Pakistani media reported that a massive raid was launched by security forces overnight in the capital, leading to the dispersal of the PTI protests.
On Wednesday, authorities reopened roads linking Islamabad with the rest of the country, ending a lockdown in place since Sunday.
“All roads are being reopened, and the demonstrators have been dispersed,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said.
Several vehicles were left behind in the heavily fortified Red Zone, including a truck from which Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, had been leading the protests. The Reuters news agency cited witnesses as saying that the vehicle appeared to be charred by flames.
The PTI’s leader in the city of Peshawar, Mohammad Asim, told the Reuters news agency that Bibi had returned “safely” to the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province alongside Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.
The province with its capital in Peshawar is seen as a PTI stronghold and its chief minister is a key Khan ally.
Why were Imran Khan supporters protesting in Islamabad?
On Tuesday, thousands of PTI supporters broke police blockades made up of shipping containers, entering the capital and marching onto D-Chowk square, a historic rallying point that lies on the edge of Islamabad’s Red Zone.
Khan supporters had begun a “long march” on Sunday to the capital from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the most populous province of Punjab to demand his release.
The embattled former prime minister faces over 150 criminal cases that he says are politically motivated.
Khan was ousted in 2022 in a no-confidence vote in parliament.
Hundreds of protesters have been arrested since the start of the demonstrations and thousands were reportedly arrested ahead of the march.
sdi/nm (AP, AFP, Reuters)